After a record-setting year for activism in 2015, activist investors are showing no signs of slowing down in 2016. So far this year (through August 4th), 207 activist campaigns were launched against companies incorporated in the United States, which is only slightly off the pace set last year through the same time period (214 campaigns). When it comes to shareholder activism, one of the topics that seems to be brought up regularly is the effect that activists ultimately have on the target company's stock price. This Market Insight report will tackle that topic. This report will analyze the shareholder return of the target company prior to the activist's arrival, through the duration of the campaign, and after its completion.

To perform this analysis, FactSet studied 269 completed activist campaigns launched by members of the SharkWatch50 from the beginning of 2010 through August 4, 2016. These activist campaigns focused on target companies that exceeded $500 million in market capitalization at the time of the campaign. The SharkWatch50 is a compilation of the fifty most significant activist investors as chosen by FactSet. Inclusion in this list is based upon a number of factors, including the number of publicly disclosed activist campaigns waged (with an emphasis on recent activity), as well as the ability to affect change at targeted companies.